Old Age and Motorcycles

Here is an unpopular topic if there ever was one. I know that it would be easier to drive my car to an older age. But I do not want to give up riding my motorcycle, although I am starting to notice the beginning of age related problems. So if you don't like this topic stop now, because it's not going to be pretty.

I remember not taking aging seriously when I was younger. I was probably about 40 years old when I attended a rally where a prize was awarded to the oldest motorcyclist. No, I don't have anything against awarding a prize to the oldest motorcyclist, but I started to get silly when they announced that he had died of old age on the way to the rally, and this would be awarded posthumously. I was remarking quietly to the people around me that this seemed a little unfair to the older people who were still living, and when one of my friends remarked that there was a lot of stiff competition in that category, I cracked up. Now I'm sixty and I am starting to take this aging stuff seriously.

A motorcycle made more sense when I was young because it was cheaper, and easier to maintain by myself, and got better gas mileage. Most of these benefits were related to cheapness, and I didn't have much money when I was young. Money is not in such short supply any more, but now I have other reasons for motorcycling. Nostalgia is one, and I also appreciate the challenge to keep me mentally sharp, and the motivation to stay in shape. I guess instead of cheapness, the advantage of motorcycling in retirement has more to do with quality of life.

So what are some of these problems? My main problem right now is occasional pain sitting on the motorcycle related to an enlarged prostate and/or a bladder stone. I first noticed it last year with the frightening appearance of blood in my urine, and my doctor is suggesting it was caused by a bladder stone, which I think I will get removed next winter. Until then I'm making do with an old air mattress folded and strapped to the motorcycle seat.

Pain while riding is also coming from my back, which is not as resilient as it used to be. But this problem is far more predictable, and there's not much I can do about it through medical intervention. It's more to do with ergonomics and the motorcycle's suspension characteristics. I have mentioned BMW's new adjustable spring rate in an earlier blog, which I think may become widespread, maybe in a different form.

My eyesight is changing for the worse. It's not just a question of getting new eyeglasses, because I seem to have problem adjusting my focus. When I was younger I could read a book for an hour and then put it down and within seconds be able to focus on distant objects. Now I find that it sometimes takes me an hour to comfortable change my focus distance, and this makes the eyeglass prescription more critical, and also harder to determine.

It's hard to tell if my mental abilities are changing. Maybe because I'm thinking of the pain in my bladder, I make mistakes like shifting down instead of up going around a corner. My reaction times are probably slowing down - or is it because the foot brake on the Vulcan is a long reach from the floorboards?

I cannot maintain my bikes as easily as I used to. I'm not as flexible, not as strong. I make as many mistakes, but now I also have less self confidence, so I tend to give up more easily than I used to.

What can be done? I would think that the choice of motorcycle could help. For instance a Burgman scooter is much easier to ride than my Vulcan. Lighter, and with a step through design. No shifting gears, no foot pedals, low seat. I don't need to give up the Vulcan in favour of the Burgman yet, but I'm thinking of the future. I am not interested in the three wheelers, I would probably opt for a car if it came to that, for example a Miata convertible - or maybe one automaker will figure out what I want and make it, like they did with the minivan when I had three young children.

This is just the first blog on aging and riding a motorcycling. If this is typical of everything in my life, being a baby boomer, as I get older I will start to notice more and more attention in the media being paid to my situation. I mean that because of our numbers, at each stage of life we come to, our concerns become fads or fashions, or major disasters.